A Kind of Paradise
by zosimos
Summary: The night of a full moon.


Edward lifted his head suddenly, glancing up and over his shoulder. He could feel Roy still under him as he listened, very intently, to the howl in the distance.

After the vocalization faded into the regular sounds of night, Roy slowly began to breathe again, his muscles tense under Edward's warm hands. Edward still had not moved, his gaze unfocused. Roy put one hand over Edward's on his chest, and Ed finally looked down at him. He was startled, as if seeing Roy underneath him for the first time.

"Someone you know?" Roy murmured, and Edward's fingers balled into a fist, dragging some of Roy's shirt with it.

"No," Edward said after a long moment. He was not lying - although it was a full moon and that was the invitation of a werewolf, calling others out to hunt. Edward felt suddenly cold, naked and exposed in his human form. He hung his head, his loose hair forming a curtain around his eyes, fists still balled in Roy's open shirt.

One hand of Roy's was still atop Edward's. The other drifted higher, cupping Edward's face and thumb running under his eye. Edward sighed aloud and turned his face into Roy's hand. "You want to be out there tonight," Roy said softly. Edward shook his head, the movement negligible but more than enough for Roy to see his thoughts.

He didn't. He didn't know the wolves in this city and he didn't want to. He had no desire to run with a pack of strangers, _especially_ not tonight. But still, that low, lingering howl left something empty and aching in his chest that even now he did not understand.

The night of the full moon was sacred to all of the werewolf tribes. It was the night that they all turned, those who had been through the blood-cleansing ceremony and those who had not. It was a night of celebration, a night to _hunt_. Edward sighed deeply, and then opened his eyes to look down at Roy.

Roy who he was straddling on the tattered old couch. They had only gotten this particular couch a few days ago; it was the first sofa that had passed Ed's sniff test at the thrift store they got most things from. It did not smell like sex, and it did not smell like death or decay, so they bought it.

Roy's eyes were so blue that they were black in most lights. They turned when he fed off of Ed, they turned a brilliant gold that looked completely unearthly in Roy's pale face.

It was the color of Ed's own eyes. He did not know if Roy was aware that his eyes changed like that, but Edward didn't care that they did. It made him feel all the more possessive of the vampire - if he only fed off of Ed, only Ed would ever see that face. Something meant to inspire fear and he was excited by it, by the warmth of Roy's mouth on his neck, the feeling of him crushed close as Edward's own blood warmed him from the inside out. There was something so deeply erotic about it that Edward almost found it more exciting than when they actually had sex.

Roy was watching him, his eyes narrowed in concern. Edward smiled into Roy's hand, kissing the palm, his warm breath against Roy's slightly cooler flesh. He had never known a vampire to be _kind_ like Roy was. Vampires were vulgar, vile, selfish beasts whose only thought and concern was their next meal, or who they would turn to be their mates.

Perhaps that was why Roy's sire had abandoned him like that. If Edward had not have come along and found him, half-passed out in a dumpster, blood streaked down his face and neck, what would have happened? Ed didn't want to think on it, not when he had Roy here, underneath him, watching him with those unnaturally dark eyes.

Edward leaned over him more, Roy's hand guiding him down so that they could kiss. Edward's nose could detect the faintest traces of blood, he had fed earlier in the day from the blood bags they kept in the kitchen - and also the take-out that Edward had brought home earlier in the night. Roy didn't need to eat, he knew, but it made him feel better when Roy _did_, so he would eat with Ed most nights.

They kissed, slowly, languidly. Edward was sitting over Roy's crotch and he ground down almost lazily.

Another howl, this one slightly closer. A different pack was forming. Edward lifted his face from Roy's, their eyes locked. "You should go," Roy encouraged him, his voice that soft, husky drawl.

Edward smiled at him. "I don't belong there," he told Roy in their shared breath. "I stink of vampires."

Roy returned the smile a little falteringly, and Edward immediately felt bad. It was not the main reason he did not want to run with this city's packs, but it was one of them. He kissed Roy again with more urgency, encouraging his attention on something more important, teeth and tongue and breath and Edward grinding in his lap.

It was true that he didn't belong out there, he belonged in here. He belonged to this vampire named Roy, body and soul. And he really wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

><p>Roy opened his eyes as he heard the howl, plaintive and sorrowful as it echoed from the balcony that fed off of their bedroom. Edward in the moonlight, head back and golden fur rippling down his neck as he sang his melancholy melody to the sky above.<p>

And then he stepped through the door, human again, naked and moonlight running rivulets off of the muscles in his shoulders and chest, watching Roy silently in the bed.

The mattress shifted as Edward climbed onto it, and Roy held out his arms as the howls began outside again anew. This was where Edward belonged.


End file.
